It's the same thing as with cooking, where plating is important. If something doesn't look appetizing, your first impression isn't going to be as strong, and that can be hard to shake. As others have said, we eat with our eyes.

When I was on vacation last month, I went to a small brewpub and tried a few of their beers. The flavor was passable, but far from great. But they looked like murky pond water, which I noticed immediately before even taking a sip. Needless to say, I wasn't particularly impressed.

If given the choice, wouldn't you rather drink clear water instead of murky water even if they tasted pretty much the same? I know what my answer is. Same with beer. If it looks appealing, the overall experience of drinking it is better. When I pour a beer in the glass, the first thing I do is take a deep breath in of the aroma, then I hold it up to the light to look at the color and clarity. Appearance can make a huge difference. Also, when I give a friend a homebrew I want them to feel as if they're drinking something that could've been professionally brewed. And once again appearance comes in to play. But with all that being said, if it doesn't bother you then that's your choice.

Here is a neat subject that I like to talk about. My FAVORITE beer glass is a doubble walled tumbler made of glass. Sure it will keep my beer cold for longer than a pint but the REAL cool thing that it does, is allow me to test for clarity without the glass condensation/fogging up. I can VERY accurately test the clarity and SRM at the same time.

When I am not drinking from one of those I have a double walled stainless steel tankard then into some standard barware stuff.

IMO if the beer isn't clear I normally can taste yeast bite which IMO is unpleasant. (Yes there are exceptions to that.)

Is it important to me? kinda. Is it going to make me loose mind? No more than reading CD3 threads.

Interesting. Bodum glasses? I love their double walled stuff, but never really thought of using them for beer.

Seriously....I prefer clear. I think, especially with our home brews, most things that would make it cloudy could also effect flavor. I keg a lot of my beers, and there is a noticeable difference in the first few glasses compared to the rest of the keg. I will go so far as to keg carbonate, pull the first few pints till it's clear, then bottle from there (except for porters/stouts). Plus I like the idea non-brewing friends being able to pour the whole bottle into the glass and not have the classic " oh...I forgot, I gota leave half the beer in the bottle with your beer" attitude that some people can get.

I have never had one of my brews come out clear. I have always experienced chill haze. I brewed a wheat last year that I preferred to drink warm, it was probably the only brew that I have made that came out clear, but only when it was warm. I also have never used any technique to get rid of the haze... Irish moss, protein rests, cold crash....
Answering the thread- I guess if you poured two beers and one of them was clear and the other was not, I would reach for the clear first. Although it is not important enough for me to employ any techniques or ingredients to cure the chill haze 'problem'. I still love the experience of seeing a beer poured in a crystal clear glass and drinking with my eyes, admiring the color and watching the bubbles swirl and dance towards the top of the glass, even though the brew is not transparent enough to read through.

Depends on the style. If it's not supposed to be clear like saison, wit, or hefeweizen then I want it opaque, but not muddy.

Other than that, there is no reason why your beer shouldn't be clear. Proper handling and or storage practices will clear the beer. The malt character should be fine, and you can add back hop aroma. Volatiles tend to fall out while clearing.

After all, you see, smell, and taste a beer. I try for the trifecta when creating my brew because it is very satisfying to me. If you don't care what your beer looks like, no worries. Enjoy it. I enjoy making clear beer.

I have to disagree with most of the responses. I have found that my bottled ales that have been refrigerated for 3+ weeks definitely taste better than the same beer with only 1-10 days in the fridge. The long long chilled bottles naturally are also much clearer and have better head retention as well.

I'm the first vote for cloudy. But then, at age 11 my regular nightcap was trub from the local brewery, often with a raw egg*. My mother was trying to put weight on me.

Nowadays, I'll even swill the bottom of the bottom to get the yeast into my glass.

*So, I'm going through Order of the Arrow hazing. For breakfast I'm handed a tin cup and an egg .... and then a match. The trouble was, I had finished breakfast before they offered the match. Solution: they gave me another egg, made me fry it on a rock, then tossed it so I wouldn't have two eggs.

I'll have to try leaving my bottles in the fridge for several days. My problem is that my fridge is too small and I drink WAY too much so I don't have the space or time to make a week long or longer pipeline of cold beer so to say.

I guess I prefer clear beer now that I know what I'm looking for, but before brewing if you had handed me murky lake water or a sparkling pilsner I probably would have chosen the murky lake water because it would have been "darker" and that meant manlier.